A manual transmission vehicle can generally be started by an operator by depressing the vehicle's clutch while using the vehicle's ignition system. Most manual transmission vehicles may also be started without depressing the clutch if the vehicle's transmission is in neutral. In neutral, the transmission's gears are already disengaged and no harm should result to the vehicle if the vehicle is started without depressing the vehicle's clutch.
However, a failure in one or more vehicle systems could cause the vehicle's electronic control unit (ECU) to falsely identify the vehicle as being in neutral. For example, a switch failure or an electrical short could result in the vehicle's ECU to report that the vehicle is in neutral when indeed the vehicle is actually in gear. In such a situation, the vehicle's ECU would allow an operator to attempt to start the vehicle without depressing the clutch. As a result, damage could occur to the car or the car could uncontrollably attempt to move since the vehicle is already in gear.
In order to avoid this potential problem, vehicle manufacturers have either disabled the ability to start the vehicle without depressing the clutch or have added an additional switch to provided redundancy in the event of a switch failure. However, these solutions are not optimal as, on the one hand, the solution requires removal of a convenient operator feature of the vehicle, and on the other hand, the solution requires additional cost and complexity resulting from the need for additional components and control of those components.
Therefore, an improved solution to the problem of ensuring that a vehicle is not started out of neutral when the vehicle's clutch is not depressed is desired.